


Step by step

by itwasadarkandstormynight



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt Kirk, Worried Leonard McCoy, but nothing graphic, it all works out, only mentions of stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 12:04:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13857423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itwasadarkandstormynight/pseuds/itwasadarkandstormynight
Summary: On a diplomatic mission on Nilar, festivities are cut when the Niloran empress is almost assassinated. Of course, James Kirk had to be standing right next to her. And of course he has to almost die in the process.





	Step by step

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JaybirdBlue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaybirdBlue/gifts).



> Wrote this for a friend, for her 17th birthday. Decided to post it here as well. My first fic here, wow. Hope you like it!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek nor its characters. The story, however, is mine.

It started out rather innocent.

Of course, McCoy should have known better than that, because out here in space, nothing is ever innocent. But the thing was, nobody thought it could go wrong. And if anyone had, it definitely wouldn’t have been this. He wasn’t quite sure what had happened yet, but -

_Jim._

Leonard’s thoughts were racing, and so was he. He knew Jim wasn’t far off - the ballroom wasn’t that big, even though it seemed like half the universe had been invited - but from what he had seen, the explosion had come from the east side, and that was where Kirk had been chatting with Empress Yexe. It was probably an assassination attempt. Leonard prayed that it had failed, but when he arrived - well, let's just say it didn't look too good.

McCoy immediately sprung into action. There was a lot of rubble, and although he had no idea how many people were lying under it, it had to be removed. He yelled to the people that were standing around “to do something, for - oh, just remove the rubble! We've got to find them if you want them to even have a chance of surviving!”

 

* * *

 

Step one: find the victim.

Spock had arrived too, and it didn’t take long before they’d found the first people. They were all Nilorans, so probably servants of the Empress, and were carried off to the hospital to be tended to by their own people. McCoy kept pulling pieces of rubble out of the way until he saw a suspiciously familiar yellow, at which he doubled his efforts to get Jim from under the mountain of debris. He'd also immediately found Empress Yesenia too, who seemed mostly unharmed. The fool, McCoy thought to himself. Of course Jim would sacrifice himself for her.

 

Step two: check if they are still breathing

Normally, he always had his medical tricorder on him, but now he couldn't seem to find it. “Spock!” he hissed, “do you have my tricorder anywhere?” “I do not, doctor. However, I did see it fall when you were running, so I will get it for you. Stay with the captain.” Spock rose and walked away. “As if I'd be going anywhere,” McCoy huffed. He anxiously watched Kirk’s chest, and dearly hoped it would rise and fall as it should, but he couldn't see anything. He continued to monitor Jim best as he could, but his nerves were getting in the way. When Spock returned (with the tricorder, thank god) McCoy snatched it from him and almost instantly calmed down. Kirk was still breathing, but barely. He needed to resuscitate him.

 

Step three: if they are not breathing, try CPR.

Make them breathe again. McCoy did not have any hyposprays on him, so he ordered Spock to contact the Enterprise to get some, adding that “Chapel will know what to do”. In the meanwhile, he started a bit of CPR. Two breaths. Thirty compressions. Repeat. Chapel beamed down, hypospray at the ready. She administered the medicine and Jim's breathing stabilized.

 

Step four: check for wounds or other injuries.

See if there's anything that needs immediate attention. Aside from some bruised ribs and a broken arm, Jim appeared to be okay. There was no sign of any internal bleeding and most of his organs were functioning within parameters - if they were able to get him to sickbay soon enough, he’d pull through. Now to get him stable enough that he would survive the trip with the transporter...

 

Step five: if they are breathing, check if they are (fully) conscious.

Kirk was unconscious, there was no doubt about it. But now that his body was fine, his brain started to stabilise (thankfully) so he'd probably wake up in about an hour. McCoy couldn't be sure, of course, but there was nothing to worry about - at least, as far as he knew.

 

Step six: if possible, try to get them to drink some water. They need liquids, it’s possible they have (severe) dehydration.

Kirk hadn't under the rubble for more than a couple of minutes. His body was in full survivor mode, so they'd need to keep an eye on whether his organs (particularly the kidneys could get in trouble) wouldn't deplete their already limited water supply.

 

Step seven: when the victim is stable, treat their injuries.

The Nilorans had been nice enough to bring a stretcher, and they even offered to bring Kirk to their hospital, should there be anything urgent that needed to be treated. McCoy replied that there wasn't; it’d be best to just get him back to the Enterprise. He could treat Jim there. 

 

* * *

 

In the end, Jim got back to the ship okay: none of his organ were in distress after he'd been beamed up and his arm had a clean break, so the bone just needed to be set. The most difficult thing was keeping Jim in sickbay to rest - the man just couldn't lie still.

After Kirk’s arm had been healed, McCoy decided to keep him in sickbay for a day or two. But when he got back to check on him, the bed was empty.

“Dammit, Jim!”

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, yes, I know TOS McCoy doesn't swear. But keep in mind I wrote this for a friend, and she absolutely loves it when he says "Dammit, Jim!" so of course I had to include it.
> 
> Leave kudos (and comments!) if you enjoyed this story!


End file.
